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Post by heartsobold on Aug 26, 2004 20:47:22 GMT -5
...sometimes we forget. Business is boomin' (or it will be shortly) at Philly Park! From the DRF... Philly purses get early slots hikeBy MATT HEGARTY Horsemen at Philadelphia Park have reached an agreement with the track to add $100,000 to daily purses by November of next year as part of an advance payment for an expected subsidy from slot machines, according to Michael Ballezzi, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. The seven-year agreement will add $10,000 to daily purses beginning Sept. 1, Ballezzi said Thursday, an amount that will make Philadelphia's Park daily purse distribution approximately $140,000. Another $10,000 will be added as of Jan. 1, with $30,000 additions in both March and July, and a $20,000 addition in November. Pennsylvania's legislature approved a bill this year that will allow for as many as 61,000 slot machines at 14 sites in the state, including seven tracks. Philadelphia Park officials have estimated that subsidies from the slots will drive Philadelphia's purses to at least $400,000 a day beginning in 2006, when the slots are expected to be up and running. The agreement also calls for Philadelphia Park to spend approximately $13 million on backstretch improvements over the next seven years, Ballezzi said. The agreement is structured so that horsemen will have to pay back 50 percent of the advance after Philadelphia's slots parlor opens, Ballezzi said.
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Post by Lisann on Aug 26, 2004 22:08:32 GMT -5
:clap: Now, here's hoping they can get slots at Fairmount. Their purses are quite low
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Post by maria on Aug 27, 2004 11:58:59 GMT -5
it really is a catch 22 - when they put gaming in at Fingerlakes they then raised the minimums the horses needed to make or they get booted out - which has put lots more TB's in a bad position. I guess that is the "business" end of it though......
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